In the United States, this interest rate is the federal funds rate in the United Kingdom, it is the official bank rate.

In the same timeframe, the ECB should move its official rate from 1 to at least 2 , while the Bank of England should aim for 5 .

As of 2011 the official graduation rate is 62 .

Official development assistance and multilateral bank lending, though valuable, remain insufficient.

Indeed, the official unemployment rate understates the weakness of the labor market.

The official exchange rate pegs Burma s currency, the kyat , at a rate of six to one against the US dollar.

Likewise, the Bank of England keeps its policy rate at only 0.5 , despite an inflation rate that hovers above 2 .

His staff leaked the contents of a conversation he claimed to have had with Paul Tucker, a senior Bank of England official, suggesting that the BoE had told Barclays to report inaccurate interest rate numbers.

The bill has set the price of oil at 95 per barrel, based on the official exchange rate of 12,260 rials for a U.S. dollar, which has been fixed by the Central Bank of Iran.

Those recoveries were also helped by interest rate reductions by the central bank.

The halving of the mortality rate has brought it below the official emergency threshold.

According to the followers of Knut Wicksell, the central bank must keep the market rate of interest near the natural rate of interest.

The European Central Bank has lowered its main refinancing rate eight times, by a total of 325 basis points, to 0.75 . The Bank of Japan has twice lowered its interest rate, which now stands at 0.1 .

This regime prevents the central bank the People s Bank of China (PBC) from taking appropriate policy decisions to manage domestic demand, because interest rate hikes could encourage capital inflows and put further pressure on the exchange rate.

The Chinese government, acting through the People s Bank of China, determines the renminbi s exchange rate.

Following the opening of the Bank, 300 new accounts were opened, generating 2 million in bank deposits. The Bank started to offer services that were not previously available, including a competitive interest rate on deposits and bank transfers.

However, late last year, Everbright Bank and some others began offering fixed rate mortgages. Take up has been slow, but the April 2006 surprise hike in bank rates may help to sow greater public awareness of interest rate risk.

Beginning in March 2009, the Swiss National Bank became the first Western central bank in years to seek to influence its currency s exchange rate through intervention.

By contrast, the link between official intervention and exchange rate movements is much more direct and potent.

Under normal circumstances and despite a high rate of literacy, Palestine's Internet penetration rate stands between 13 and 15 per cent (including both the West Bank and Gaza).

Supporting sterling at the required exchange rate had proved prohibitively expensive for the Bank and the British government.

By recording earnings at the official exchange rate, they are worth nearly 200 times below what they should be.

The picture is especially grim for the UK, with the official interest rate at 0.5 and inflation at 3.3 .

Nearly all mortgages have floating rates that vary with the five year loan rate set by the People s Bank.

Given this dual exchange rate system, hiding Burma s gas earnings becomes easy. By recording earnings at the official exchange rate, they are worth nearly 200 times below what they should be.

For the eurozone, it implies a strong exchange rate vis à vis the dollar (and, by implication, the yen, as the Bank of Japan closely monitors the yen dollar exchange rate).

English is the official language, and the literacy rate, 98 percent, is one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere.

This is because official capital controls oblige exporters to deposit hard currencies with the People s Bank of China in exchange for freshly printed yuan (usually as bank deposits) or government debt.

Second, Diamond apparently thought that he could take on the British establishment. His staff leaked the contents of a conversation he claimed to have had with Paul Tucker, a senior Bank of England official, suggesting that the BoE had told Barclays to report inaccurate interest rate numbers.

Otherwise, China s central bank must focus on keeping the exchange rate stable and doesn t have a truly independent monetary policy.

While the one time increase will appear in official statistics as a temporary rise in the growth rate, there is nothing to make that higher growth rate continue in the following quarters.

And trust loans tied to LGIVs ultimately enjoy the same implicit guarantee from the central government as official bank loans.

If that swung by two percentage points as the government and the central bank want to a positive 1 inflation rate, the interest rate would also increase by about two percentage points.

Indeed, from the Bank of Japan s dramatic policy U turn to the Bank of Mexico s surprise interest rate cuts, the Fed s approach is affecting central banks in a growing number of countries.

Finally and perhaps most importantly the People s Bank of China has raised its benchmark policy rate five times since October 2010.

Indeed, the Bank of England s latest inflation report makes it clear that, in such a context, interest rate hikes are likely.

The official line so far has been no default, meaning no sovereign default or that of any bank can be considered.

Purpose Official international reserves assets allow a central bank to purchase the domestic currency, which is considered a liability for the central bank (since it prints the money or fiat currency as IOUs).

And the Bank of England has cut its benchmark rate nine times, by 525 points, to an all time low of 0.5 .

The World Bank avoids this problem by assuming that the poverty rate of any country without such data matches the region s average.

Societies in which the official unemployment rate stands at 10 or more for generations are societies in which government economic management has failed.

BEIJING Measured by the percentage of people living in its cities, China s urbanization rate currently stands at about 48 , according to official statistics.

However, as of 2012, an estimated 11.7 of the population lived below the poverty line and the official open unemployment rate was 6.1 .

At the balance sheet date, all asset and liability balances are revalued using the United Nations official exchange rate as at 31 December.

Bank interest rates on savings are lower than the inflation rate and many multiples lower than the rates promised by the informal sector.